Can Animals Be Slaves?

Can Animals Be Slaves?

The SeaWorld system is the best of all seaquaria in the world, but if I was
an orca, that would be the last place I’d want to live.
- (former SeaWorld
trainer and current medical doctor, Jeffrey Ventre)

On February 8, 2012, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller ruled that five
wild-captive orcas (Tilikum, Katina, Kasatka, Corky, and Ulises) owned by
SeaWorld and represented by PETA et al. had no standing to sue for
protection under the 13th Amendment. Miller wrote: “As ‘slavery’ and
‘involuntary servitude’ are uniquely human activities, as those terms have
been historically and contemporaneously applied, there is simply no basis to
construe the Thirteenth Amendment as applying to non-humans.”

While it is absolutely certain that the 1865 Congress intended to protect
only human beings with the 13th Amendment, making Judge Miller’s literal
reading correct, it is equally true that mid-19th Century knowledge and
appreciation of the animal mind was virtually nonexistent. So, an animal’s
interests needn’t have been respected because, quite simply, he had no
interests. In addition, the nascent animal advocacy movement was narrowly
focused on the welfare (not liberation) of dogs and horses. Today, however,
there is a burgeoning animal ethology field providing new insights across
the species spectrum. Capacities and abilities once considered exclusively
human are now regularly attached to other sentient beings. And the majestic
cetaceans (orcas, or killer whales, are cetaceans in the dolphin family) are
head of the class.

Armed with this information, which was mostly not available when SeaWorld
first opened in 1964, should it be that difficult for us to imagine the
psychological suffering of cetaceans in captivity? In The Orca Project, two
former SeaWorld trainers, Professor John Jett and Dr. Jeffrey Ventre, share
indications of that suffering: excessive surface resting, self-mutilation,
random (and unnatural) attacks on trainers and fellow orcas, etc.. In short,
“…captivity kills orcas, usually at a young age… and… stresses, social
tensions and poor health are chronic issues in marine park facilities.”

With still much to learn, it is perfectly reasonable to assert that at
least some cetaceans (killer whales among them) are more cognitively aware
than some humans, including, but not necessarily limited to, the very young,
the senile, and the mentally enfeebled. These humans are, of course,
protected from being enslaved; indeed, because of their raw vulnerability,
they are the ones most in need of protection. Considered in this context,
then, why should such a person, one decidedly unable to understand or
participate in a court proceeding initiated in his behalf, be afforded legal
recourse while an orca is not? The answer, whether offered by 21st Century
SeaWorld (Ringling Bros.) or the 19th Century Plantation Class (see Dred
Scott), has no place in an enlightened society: because they are not us. To
exploit others – races, ethnicities, genders, and, yes, species – simply
because we can renders hollow the ideals of reason and justice.

SeaWorld, of course, dismissed the lawsuit as a mere publicity stunt. To
cynics and fans alike, they proudly proclaim themselves educators and
conservationists, and would-be liberators are marginalized as sentimental
anthropomorphists. Whether SeaWorld genuinely believes this or is
intentionally deceptive is quite beside the point. With large amounts of
money at stake (SeaWorld remains immensely profitable; the “Shamu Stadium”
is still the main attraction), ethical lines become blurred and fluid, and
revenue streams must be defended to the last. In the SeaWorld boardroom,
then, it matters not a bit what science reveals about cetacean intelligence
and depth of suffering. Change, if it is to come, must begin and end with
the consumer.

Finally, there are some (law professor David Steinberg among them) who
are offended, even outraged, by PETA’s use of the word slavery, calling it
demeaning to the memory of those human beings once held as property. But
like those humans, each of the 42 killer whales in captivity has an
intrinsic worth all her own, a nature to pursue. And no matter how well they
are supposedly treated (remember, some slave-owners were once referred to as
“benevolent”), it is precisely their nature that is being so utterly negated
in these “small, acoustically-dead, concrete enclosures.” Although their
relative intelligence is far from definitive, we are sure that wild orcas
are autonomous. And if owning and completely controlling an innately
autonomous being does not define slavery, what does?

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